I’ve Got My New Blog Set up, Looks Great… Now How Do I Make Money?

I recently received this email from one of my newest team members how is just starting to learn the ropes. It went something like this:

Dear Bob,

I’m doing well, but I feel a little overwhelmed with this marketing thing. I ended up having XXXX set up my blog for me. It looks great, but now my question is… how do I start making money?

– Ralph (name changed to protect the innocent)

Here is my response:

Hey Ralph,

Love the look of your site… it really grabs you. They did a really nice job for you.

Now that you’ve got your online home, its time to make it more inviting to others. I’m not talking about the physical look. I’m talking about content.

You said that you still don’t know how to make money. So here’s the deal.

The short term way is to throw up a bunch of ads somewhere and hope someone answers it and joins you. This works sometimes but more often than not, you end up spending more money than you make (in my experience, anyway).

The longer-term way to make money is to make yourself more and more valuable to others in the marketplace. To do this, you need to shift your mindset from, “How can I make more money?” to “How can I add more value to others’ lives?” It may sound awkward or a roundabout way of doing it, but I have always found that paying it forward — adding value first — always results in more money in my pocket at the end of the day.

So how do you add value, especially when you’re first starting out?

One word — knowledge. Learn a skill. Master a marketing strategy. Become an expert in mindset and leadership. And in terms of training and education, well — you are in the right place with PRO. Dive into their extensive training and start learning.

You don’t need to do it all, just one thing at a time. And when you learn something, blog about it. Share it with the world.

What do you think of my response?

Any other words of wisdom to give “Ralph”?

Leave a comment below!

Dr. Bob Clarke teaches Part Time Marketers how to better leverage their time, effort, money, skills, and other people's knowledge in maximizing their business success. Don't forget to grab your Free Training Grow a Thriving Business in 30 Minutes/Day or Less -- an essential resource for anyone struggling to build their business Part Time.

Great advice! The only thing that I might add to that Dr Bob, is to find ways to automate your reach, like using something like triberr to reach more people. There are many other ways out there to do this, paid and free. The reason I mentioned triberr is it’s free, but you need to be invited by someone that is already in.

The issue with this beginning blogger is that he really needed to spend some time figuring out his niche and who is was writing for. Until he did this, he was kind of spinning his wheel trying to make an impression on his readers.

If I were Ralph, I would be very thankful to have such and encouraging, positive, and supportive leader. You are doing such a super job.

I think if I were Ralph, I might appreciate a little bit more specific direction. It wouldn’t need to be too much hand holding, but a little more specific. Such as, a list of skills that you already know or think that he may be good at. Give him a nudge in a direction, and see how he responds. Does it sound right to him?
Maybe you are doing this in other correspondence with him, but that was my initial thought.

Hi Bob, I think the hard part for newbies is knowing that it will take time to build up the value within their site. You are always thinking ‘when will I get my first sale/recruit/email, etc” Husbands in particular do not realise that a blog needs time to build up followers before any money comes rolling in!

Hi Bob! I love your way of focusing him on giving and adding value, and on learning whatever he needs to in order to make himself more valuable. I agree completely that when your content offers that much value, that is half the battle for making a profit.

It’s so true… lead with value and the rest will follow. But… and there’s always a but — only if you have the patience, the persistence, and the consistent effort.
It’s a rather large BUT… that’s why so many people come away thinking “it doesn’t work.”

Sometimes I sense that newbies get frustrated because they look around and see so many others that are more popular and have more knowledge than they do. But these same people spent months or even years growing their knowledge and fostering relationships to get where they are today.

I keep telling people – it’s a process. Enjoy the change in yourself as you take this journey. Some heed this advice and move forward. Others scoff and give up.

Bob that’s a perfect reply. With any online business, when one just takes the mind off money and concentrates on providing value, that’s when the real business starts. Providing value builds trust, trust leads to leads and then money.

So as you say, it may sound weird to stop thinking about making money in order to make money. But that’s how it works.

It does sound counter-intuitive, right? Unfortunately, many will start down this road and begin creating value, but get tired of waiting for the money part to kick in… and they quit. Or some get discouraged when they don’t see much (or any) income and start thinking they were wrong. It’s a process and people must be willing to delay gratification.

Great to see you here! It definitely IS hard to reset your mindset when you first get started, but you must do it or you’ll never realize the success you deserve. As part of our leadership group, you know that better than anyone! Thanks for stopping by.